


The Final Battle

by alls_fair_in_pride_and_prejudice



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, F/M, Feelings, Magic, Tragedy, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:21:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25194580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alls_fair_in_pride_and_prejudice/pseuds/alls_fair_in_pride_and_prejudice
Summary: The final showdown against Aaravos. When all hope seems lost, Callum witnesses something extraordinary.
Relationships: Aaravos/the Orphan Queen
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	The Final Battle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aoibynay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aoibynay/gifts).



> This was one of two prize fics I gave out for the first people to identify where the title of my last fic came from.  
> I recommend listening to Black Heart by Brunuhville while reading this if you want to get extra feelings. I cried while writing this and I want you to cry too.

Callum was so weak, every breath a labor, but he refused to relinquish his hope. He had to believe he could continue to put up enough of a fight long enough for the last of their forces to make their final stand.  
Ever since Aaravos was freed from his prison, he had only grown more powerful with each passing day. He could take down dozens of fighters without batting an eye. The most powerful mages of Xadia stood against him now, Callum among their ranks.  
He would not consider himself a true master by any means, but they needed all the help they could get. Setting his jaw in determination, he pushed past the pain to stand again and wiped the blood from his mouth. If he was going to die, then he would die on his feet with magic at his fingertips.  
Aaravos dispensed with another mage with a laugh of triumph, knocking them out cold. Callum took advantage of Aaravos’s brief moment of distraction, firing Fulminus with all his strength. The startouch elf deflected it the way one might bat away a fly. He turned to Callum with a smirk. “Your resilience would be admirable if your efforts were not so hopeless.”  
Callum clutched his side where an old wound decided to protest in his exhaustion. Weakly, he began tracing another rune, only to be thrown off his feet and crashing into the dirt before he could finish. Aaravos raised his hand, ready to deal the finishing blow, when a blinding light filled the battlefield, centered on Aaravos.  
Never feeling the hit that he expected, Callum cautiously opened his eyes to see a woman standing in front of Aaravos. Her dark brown hair was braided in cornrows decorated with gold. She was dressed in white and black, and seemed to glow with her own light, a radiance like the sun. Callum thought she might be an angel, but then he saw something like Ezran in her beautiful features, and Callum recognized her as his brother’s ancestor: The Orphan Queen.  
The aura of light seemed to suffuse the air, and Callum wondered what anyone else could see, for he was close enough to see the queen standing before Aaravos, but anyone else might just have seen the mages silhouetted by the intense light.  
Several emotions flickered across Aaravos’s face as he looked at the queen before him, everything else completely forgotten. First, confusion and anger, then something softer, like grief and care. The queen’s brows pressed together in loving concern, wrinkling her soft, youthful face. She smiled, and held her hand out to Aaravos’s cheek, hovering in the space around him, but not touching. Aaravos pulled away from the threat of her caress, running his fingers against his own skin, marred by the dark magic he practiced.  
Callum could not hear her speak at first, but saw her lips move in the whisper of Aaravos’s name once before speaking loud enough for Callum to overhear. “Aaravos, please, you have done enough. Come home with me.”  
Aaravos, the man that had moved armies with his words alone, seemed to struggle to find his voice. Then, the queen reached out, as if holding something aloft, and a beautiful red, ripe apple appeared in her upturned palm. Hands shaking, Aaravos reached out and cradled the apple in his palms, staring down at it as if it were a precious gemstone. Tears began to stream down his face, dripping onto the skin of the fruit.  
A wave of magic starting from the apple washed over Aaravos, seeming to restore him to a younger version of himself, without the stain of dark magic on him, and the softness of youth in his cheeks. The queen reached up to wipe away his tears with her sleeve, and this time, Aaravos did not flinch away, but leaned into her touch, clinging to her hand and holding it to his face like it was the only thing keeping him alive.  
Callum watched in disbelief as the very same person that was laying waste to dozens of enemies at a time just moments prior melted into the soft man in love before him, completely unconcerned with anything besides the woman before him. Some part of Callum wondered if he should use this moment to his advantage, but he could not bring himself to interrupt the tender moment in front of him, nor attack when the battle had been brought to a standstill.  
Aaravos took a bite from the apple, savoring the flavor of the fruit, before smiling at the orphan queen. He took her hand in his, and quietly said, “yes, let’s go ho-” but jerked and choked mid-sentence. Aaravos looked down to see the tip of an arrow poking through his chest, having skewered him through.  
Callum turned his gaze to the hill where Queen Aanya stood, her bow still raised, and she let another enchanted arrow fly, this one hitting Aaravos through the neck.  
Whatever magic had changed Aaravos’s appearance vanished, leaving behind the monstrous look of dark magic tainting his body. Aaravos, tears running down his cheeks, raised his hand to reach for the orphan queen as her image disappeared as well, and he fell to his knees.  
Callum watched as the mage let out a strangled sob before collapsing fully on the ground, dead. He stepped forward cautiously, hand outstretched to the space where the queen stood moments ago. It was as if she had never been there at all, and the air was stale and vacant, lacking the effervescent gleam it held half a moment ago. What had Callum and Aaravos seen? Had anyone else seen it, or had there been anything there to begin with?  
Later, every other account of the battle would say that Aaravos had just been about to kill Callum when Queen Aanya arrived and shot Aaravos. No one else would give any indication that they saw the queen. Callum would have doubted that she was there to begin with, if it were not for what he saw a few paces from Aaravos’s body.  
A perfectly red apple lay on the ground, as if it had rolled away from Aaravos’s hand when he fell, and there was a single bite taken out of it.

**Author's Note:**

> If you comment I will love you forever  
> Come say hi (or yell at me) on my Tumblr: https://alls-fair-in-pride-and-prejudice.tumblr.com


End file.
